"The Sworn Enemy Of The Super Nintendo"

Before the legendary Super Nintendo appeared, there was the Sega Genesis, the one system that almost toppled Nintendo. The Genesis came out when the NES was starting to go out of popularity, and more and more people began to gain interest in the Genesis. The Genesis was superior to the NES in seemingly every way, which was the main reason people were buying IT instead of Nintendo's aging console. Everything appeared to be going Sega's way, until Nintendo unleashed their 16-bit secret weapon: The Super Nintendo. The Super Nintendo was more advanced than the Genesis in every aspect, and crushed it on the open market. Sega continued making games for a few more years, but eventually, it just couldn't keep up with the success of the SNES. Bad marketing was also key to Sega's downfall. While Nintendo was making bestselling games like Mario and Zelda, Sega was mostly making horrible sports titles that no one wanted to play. However, that's not say that the Sega Genesis is a bad system. Far from it. Here's why.

Games 9/10: Despite what I said earlier, Sega did have some pretty good games. They just weren't very good when it came to sports games, but neither was Nintendo at the time. I guess I'll just shut up now and list the types of games the Genesis had.

Game Genres: Action/Adventure 10/10: Like the SNES, this was the Genesis's strong point. With many, many successful action and adventure games under its belt, it's surprising that the Genesis went out popularity with the gaming world so quickly. Here are some of the most memorable action/adventure titles for the Sega Genesis: Sonic the Hedgehog 1, 2,and 3, Jurassic Park, Shinobi 3.

RPG's 10/10: Genesis didn't have too many RPGs, but some of the ones they DID have became so popular, that they were remade on some of the ''next generation'' consoles. The most obvious of these was Phantasy Star, now on the Gamecube. But anyway, here are some of the more well known RPGs: Phantasy Star 1, 2, 3, and 4, Super Hydlide, and Dragon Slayer 1 and 2.

Racing 7/10: Like most systems of its day, Genesis wasn't great when it came to racing games. The graphical capabilities weren't really suited towards games of that genre. Not all were bad though. Here is a list of the few good racing games on the Genesis: Road Rash 1, 2, and 3, Super Hang On, and Top Gear 2.

Flight Simulators 7/10: The SNES definitely had the upper hand in this department with their Super FX chip. Even so, Sega had managed to scrap together some pretty decent flight sim games. They weren't great, but then again, they weren't awful either. Here's a list: MiG-29 Fulcrum, F-22 Interceptor, and F-15 Strike Eagle 2.

Puzzle 10/10: The Genesis had some very good puzzle titles on it. Some of them were based off of hit game shows, others off of popular board games, and still, others that were based off of who knows what. Here's a list of Sega's puzzle games: Jeopardy, Monopoly, and Lemmings.

Fighting 10/10: What was strange about Sega was that their fighting games looked exactly like they did in the arcade. That's not really a bad thing, but other companies like Nintendo always improved the graphics and sound qualities on a game that they were porting from the arcade to the SNES. Oh well, it's no big deal. Sega had some great fighting titles that were ported from arcade games. And here's a list of them: Street Fighter 2, Primal Rage, and the doomed title Shaq Fu.

Sports 1/10: Bad graphics, bad sound, bad everything. Sega's sports titles were the very things that led to their downfall. Instead of trying to develop some great action games that would hopefully bring all the attention back to Sega instead of Nintendo, Sega made a whole bunch of crappy sports titles that no one wanted to play. Besides the fact that nobody was interested in these games, Sega should have noticed that the Genesis simply didn't have the power to make a GOOD sports game. But they went along with it anyway, and the Genesis got annihilated by the SNES on the open market. Here are some of the terrible titles that no one in their right mind would ever want to play: Madden NFL '94 - '98, NBA Live '95 - '98, and FIFA Soccer.

Graphics 9/10: At the time the Sega Genesis came out, everyone was amazed at how great the graphics were. 16-bit graphics were some high quality stuff back then. When the SNES came out, we could see that although the Genesis's graphical capabilities were very good, they couldn't compare to the sheer power of the SNES. But still if you look at them, the Genesis's graphics weren't much worse than the SNES's. They just didn't have enough colors in them, and they were slightly more blocky than the SNES as well.

Sound 10/10: The Genesis, in some ways had even better sound qualities than the SNES. The Genesis, unlike the SNES, made good use of voice clips, a thing I rarely hear in Super Nintendo games. The Genesis's sound processor worked wonderfully, producing clean, clear music and sound effects. Sega really outdid itself in this catergory.

Durability 10/10: Like the Super Nintendo, the Genesis was built to last. It's older than the SNES, and it still works just fine.

Controls 9/10: From what I know Sega made a number of different controllers, but I'm going to rate the controls on the three button controller, since that's the type I own, and the type I have the most experience with. The controls can be a bit frustrating at times. They seem to be a bit slow at times, but other than that, they seem to work allright. I can only assume that the 6-button controllers are just as good or better.

Well, there you have it. The Sega Genesis. The one console that came the closest to beating out Nintendo. But like the Cleveland Browns and the SuperBowl, it just couldn't do it. Here's a little advice, buy this great system at the first chance you get. If you don't you'll probably regret it for the rest of your life. Good Bye.